


Memories

by MadFictionalUniverse



Category: Bridge to Terabithia (2007), Bridge to Terabithia - Katherine Paterson
Genre: Angst, Best Friends, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Friendship, Gen, Light Angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-05
Updated: 2019-10-05
Packaged: 2020-11-24 17:01:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,352
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20911046
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MadFictionalUniverse/pseuds/MadFictionalUniverse
Summary: Leslie looks sadly at him. “I wish I could give you bubblegum right now.”Jesse cracks a smile through the tears and once again, she looks satisfied.(or: moments of Jesse and Leslie talking in the tree house)





	Memories

**Author's Note:**

> So, I watched the movie yesterday and cried about it again (nothing new). But it gave me the idea for this story. I don't know if someone will read it, but in case you're doing it now, I hope you like it.

“This looks so good.”

Jesse looks at the blonde girl and smiles. “Thanks. May Belle wanted a drawing of her as princess in a castle.” She doesn’t miss how his face changes before he continues to talk, the smile vanishing from his face. “Childish stuff.”

“Hey, did something happen? Is it your dad?”

At this point, Leslie knows him better than his own family, she knows exactly what makes him sad, and knows how to comfort him.

“He thinks I’m wasting time with the drawings and paintings. Says it’s time for me to grow up if I wanna be something in life. Says all of this bullshit will take me nowhere.”

Leslie sighs and rolls her eyes. “Alright, I’m glad you’re ignoring him, because he’s wrong.”

“Is he?”

“Jess, come on, you can’t be serious!”

“Leslie, it’s true! My parents work hard so my sisters and I can have a good life and be successful in the future. They don’t want us to struggle like they do every time to pay the bills.” He tosses the pencil aside and sits down on the tree house. “And everything I want to do is art.”

“Art can take you far. You can be successful if you really want to. Look at my parents, they write books and they’re just fine.”

“But it’s not like that for everybody, Les.” 

“Well, give up if you want to, but I feel like one day, people will be dying to have one of your paintings hanging up on their walls.” She shrugs, getting a smile out of him again.

Jesse looks at the colored pencils, crayons, paints and paintbrushes around him then at the girl by his side. All this time, his art is what keeps him going on, makes him feels better, he can’t just stop.

“You might be right.” He tells Leslie, who looks satisfied.

“I’m always right.”

X 

“People like them don’t get far in life, you know?”

That’s what Leslie says as she watches him clean his bloody nose.

Sometimes, Jesse wishes he could leave, go to the big city or even another country. Get as far away from people like Scott and Gary as possible and just leave everything behind. However, leaving everything behind also meant leaving Leslie. And that’s something he couldn’t do.

“Will they ever figure that out?” He asks, sounding annoyed.

“Maybe. People like them act like that because they’re unhappy with their own lives. And also because they watch too much TV.” She smirks and Jesse allows himself to laugh for the first time that day.

“Things are gonna get better someday, right?”

Leslie smiles at his question and they sit together to watch the warriors flying. “They will. These bad things will stop happening and turn into memories.”

“But memories never die.” Jesse points out and she nods.

“Yeah, memories never die. Would you want them to?”

He thinks about the bad memories of Gary and Scott making of him and hitting him, about all the fights with his father and sisters and the memories of feeling lonely, everything he had always wanted to forget. Then, he thinks of Leslie.

“No. I wouldn’t.”

“Good.” Leslie says and starts singing one of the songs they learned at Ms. Edmunds class. “Someday I’m finally gonna let go, I know there’s a better way…”

X 

Jesse runs. 

He runs, and runs, and runs. The tears stream down his face, almost blinding him until he finally gets to the old tree house, where Leslie is already waiting for him.

“What happened?” She asks worriedly.

“I wanna be alone right now!” He yells and sits hugging his knees and hiding his face. He doesn’t wanna look at her, he can’t.

“No, you don’t! Tell me.”

“Go away!”

“Jess, you don’t wanna be alone, talk to me!”

“How do you know that?” The boy screams, his voice echoing through the woods.

“Because you’re here. You wouldn’t come here if you didn’t want me to see you.”

She knows. Because, of course Leslie knows. Sitting next to him, she spends half an hour whispering comforting words, telling him he’s gonna be fine. He knows he won’t.

The rain starts pouring on the top of his head and soon his clothes are soaking wet, but he doesn’t seem to bother, only clinging to his coat, but never leaving.

“You’re amazing.” He says looking at her blue eyes, sniffing. “I wish people could see what I see.”

“I know.” She whispers, looking down.

“I wish people could see you at all.” He chokes out along with a sob.

Looking at the ghost of Leslie Burke, he can almost see flashbacks of both of them waving at each other in the rain. The girl carrying Prince Terrien with a huge smile, the last one he saw.

He blames himself over, and over, and over again. When he wakes up, when he glances at the empty seat in classes they used to share and when he goes to sleep. He blames himself when he looks at the house that used to be hers, now with a sign that says “for sale” and when he looks at the creek. 

Nothing is the same anymore, but he fakes it. He smiles at his family and tries to make new friends but no one will ever take her place. No one will ever see Terabithia like Jesse and Leslie did, not even May Belle. His little sister saw the reign as her own fairytale land, where she was the princess, but it was so much more. 

It was an escape. Somewhere he could use his imagination as much as he wanted and no one would judge him for being too old for that, because Leslie was just like him. Jesse started to see the world the same way she did but his world couldn’t exist without her, because she was the one who introduced that world to him. In Terabithia, they were free.

Maybe that’s why she never left.

Jesse wonders if what he sees is really happening. If that’s really the ghost of his best friend, who’s there to make sure he doesn’t feel lonely again. He feels selfish. 

“Your family-“

“They’re alright. I can feel it. Jess, Terabithia feels like home, that’s why I’m here. I’ll always be here.”

“But what about me? Will I have to move on? Forget you?” Jesse sounds desperate, scared of forgetting about the girl who was, is, so important to him.

However, Leslie shakes her head.

“Memories never die. I’ll always be with you.”

“You’re not real!” He yells once more, his voice already hoarse because of the rain. “You’re made up, like everything else! Like my drawings, the Sqoager, and Terabithia! You’re dead and it’s all-“

“Don’t you dare.” Leslie says it serious and firm. “You are not to blame, Jesse. There was no way you could’ve known. There was no way I could’ve known. If you were with me it could’ve been both of us drowning.”

He closes his eyes tightly, hating the sound of that word. Thinking about his best friend slowly losing consciousness is too much for him to bare. Reaching to touch her arm he sighs frustrated, it was like trying to hold smoke.

Leslie looks sadly at him. “I wish I could give you bubblegum right now.”

Jesse cracks a smile through the tears and once again, she looks satisfied.

“Will I have to move on?” He questions again after a while. “Grow up?”

“Growing up doesn’t mean leaving everything behind or abandoning a part of you. You don’t have to close you mind to open your eyes again. Always-“

“Keep my mind wide open.” The boy finishes for her and she grins. “You were right about that.”

Leslie shrugs. “I’m always right.”

Jesse stands up and gets down. He starts walking back to the bridge, fighting the urge to stay there. Suddenly, he stops and turns around, finding those familiar blue eyes staring back at him. Leslie’s waving, just like that day.

“Goodbye, Jess.” 

She smiles and starts to fade away. He sighs, voice trembling.

“Goodbye, Leslie.”


End file.
